Pros
- Startup benefits (free food, drinks, standing desks, etc) plus corporate BlackRock benefits (401k, cash bonus, parental leave) - Diverse workplace, welcoming for women and LGBT - Most people are smart and approachable, especially Bo & Jon - Engineering has invested effort to reduce tedious work - Still lots of good people left, despite a string of high performers leaving after this year's bonus - Devs frequently work with non-devs throughout the company - Management generally listens to complaints and try to correct course - Some teams allow flexible work from home arrangements - Many employees pick up better personal finance & investing habits
Cons
- Feels more like a vendor working for multiple partners rather than a true platform - Arbitrary deadlines with no flexibility on feature requirements because someone promised it to a partner - Each partner wants different features, company can't agree on how to prioritizate. Some PMs end up on projects that will never ship. - Very little flexibility to be creative due to partner constraints - Some BlackRock benefits (e.g. 401k matching) come with 3 year vesting cliff! - Corporate HR policies like promotions & raises only on annual review, no stock awards, personal trading reporting - Devs always end up doing tech support and answering questions about the product (not enough product documentation or knowledgeable PMs)